The invention relates to a vacuum cleaner comprising a housing, which accommodates a suction unit, and a dust container which is detachably coupled to the housing and in which a dust filter can be placed, which dust container is provided with an opening for placing the dust filter and, on an outside with a handle.
The invention also relates to a dust container which can suitably be used in a vacuum cleaner in accordance with the invention.
A vacuum cleaner of the type mentioned in the opening paragraph is known from DE-OS-2 226 724. The known vacuum cleaner is a so-called canister-type vacuum cleaner the housing of which is provided with a number of wheels allowing the housing to be moved over a floor surface. The dust container of the known vacuum cleaner can be placed in a holder forming part of the housing. When the dust container is placed in the holder, a lower part of the dust container is recessed in the holder while an upper part of the dust container smoothly engages the housing. In this case, the handle of the dust container is situated at an upper side of the dust container while the opening of the dust container is situated in a side wall thereof facing the suction unit. The dust filter which can be placed in the dust container is a dust bag. To replace a dust bag present in the dust container, a user has to remove the dust container from the holder by means of the handle, so that the opening is exposed, the dust bag can be removed and a new dust bag can be placed in the dust container. Finally, the user has to place the dust container back in the holder. The user may, for example, carry the dust container holding the dust bag to a rubbish bin where the user can remove the dust bag from the dust container. In this manner, the dust bag is replaced in a hygienic manner.
A drawback of the known vacuum cleaner is that during removing the dust container from the holder, dust may drop from the dust bag via the opening formed in said side all of the dust container, or the dust bag may partly, or even completely, fall out of the dust container. To preclude this, during removing the dust container from the holder, the user should rotate said dust container through an angle of approximately 90.degree. to a position where the opening faces upwards. As a result, the ease of use of the known vacuum cleaner is adversely affected.